The Generalist

Californian-born Marybeth Hamilton teaches American History at Birkbeck College, University of London and we’re in her office there one recent Wednesday afternoon talking about her fascinating new book ‘In Search of the Blues: Black Voices, White Visions.’

What began as a project about Little Richard turned into an examination of the myth of the Delta Blues - that blues originated in the Delta and that the sound typified by Robert Johnson, Skip James et al is the real ‘uncorrupted’ primary blues music. Such assertions have found their way into most of the major blues histories and are by and large accepted as gospel truth.

Marybeth Hamilton’s book makes these comfortable certainties hard to sustain. In clear and measured tones, with a clarity of thought and a depth of research, she takes us in the footsteps of the white song hunters and record collectors who went in search of uncorrupted Afro-American voices, carrying their prejudices with them.

The myth of the Delta Blues, she argues, arose in the early 1960s in the mind of a virtually destitute occult eccentric outsider James McKune whose legendary record collection of just 300 carefully selected ‘78s that he kept under his bed inspired a group of aficionados and fellow collectors called the Blues Mafia.

This is a real gem of an interview with great sound quality (but with strange noises off from time to time which add to the atmosphere somehow). For deep bluesologists and blues newbies alike.

In Search of the Blues is published by Jonathan Cape [£12.99]

Files

Interview, MP3 Size: 49.1MB, Length: 01:32:42 - CDN Link - Direct Link